I recently got back into fish keeping after a break of about 6-7 years. I just missed the little buggers! I've kept Mollies, Otos, betta, Black Moores, etc., etc., in the past with a variance in tank sizes, filtration, lighting, planted and unplanted setups.

So I got a betta. Isn't that how it all begins? Then I fell in love with African Dwarf Frogs. I kept envisioning a planted 20 Gal. long tank with the little critters swimming around, being silly. I bought the 20 Gal., the lighting (an expensive, yet beautiful AquaticLife dual bulb, HO Full Spectrum setup). I went through the woes of planting and replanting, picking the perfect rocks, the perfect driftwood, rearranging everything to make it just so.

Boom! Bacteria bloom. Sigh. The first time in all the tanks I've kept to have that problem. Drove me nuts. Finally cleared up after a few weeks, so I went out and picked up 4 tiny little ADFs. They're now healthy, larger ADFs! Then got hit with another bacteria bloom. Ugh! After a few weeks, it cleared up and I picked up a dozen Bleeding Heart Tetra for the tank. Except the guy at Big Al's gave me closer to 18 of them, and one mystery Tetra. It sort of looks like a Blue Tetra, but not quite.

The algae started going nuts. New tank algae – the brown kind. So I picked up three Otocinclus, who have been doing a fantastic job cleaning it up. They're nice and fat, pooping constantly, and happy.

But the Tetra are dying. I have no idea why. Will post up another thread about that.

Welcome to the forum! We are so glad to have you. We all understand the frustrations that can happen with new tanks. Hang in there. Also, keep in mind, we all love pictures so if you have them, feel free to share them. :)